Harper's former parliamentary secretary faces five years jail

OTTAWA – Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro has resigned from the Conservative caucus after he and a campaign worker were charged with filing a false document and failing to report $21,000 in expenses from the 2008 election. The charges follow a two-year investigation by the Commissioner of Canada Elections.

Del Mastro, who until recently served as Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s parliamentary secretary, faces four charges under the Elections Act, three shared with official agent Richard McCarthy.

Upon conviction, the charges carry a maximum penalty of five years in jail and a $5,000 fine.

In a statement late Thursday, Del Mastro said, “Today I learned that Elections Canada laid charges against me pertaining to the 2008 General Election. As I have consistently stated in the past, I entirely reject these allegations and look forward to the opportunity to defend myself in court.

“While it is my full intention to continue to support the Government’s economic agenda and the principles for which it stands, I have advised caucus leadership that it is my intention to step out of caucus until this matter is resolved.”

Opposition MPs called immediately for Del Mastro to be fired as a parliamentary secretary and kicked out of the Conservative Party caucus. Del Mastro’s name was quietly removed Thursday from the list of parliamentary secretaries on the prime minister’s website.

Del Mastro at a glance:

Age: 43First elected to Parliament: Jan. 23, 2006Represents: Peterborough riding in central Ontario. In 2011 he won the riding with almost 50% of the vote.Appointments: Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage from 2008 to 2001; parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister 2011 to 2013; last week he was shuffled to be the new parliamentary secretary to ministers with regional economic development portfolios.Private career: Owned a Suzuki car dealership in Peterborough.

The charges appear to stem from a $21,000 personal cheque Del Mastro wrote to an Ottawa company called Holinshed Research, which performed voter identification and contact services for Del Mastro’s campaign.

Only $1,575 in expenses paid to Holinshed were reported on the return Del Mastro’s campaign filed with Elections Canada. Had the full $21,000 been claimed, the campaign would have exceeded its maximum expense limit, in violation of the elections law.

Del Mastro and McCarthy are jointly charged with exceeding the campaign expense limit and providing a report to Elections Canada that didn’t include the $21,000 expense.

They are also accused of providing a document that “that each knew or ought reasonably to have known contained a material statement that was false or misleading.”

Del Mastro faces an additional charge of exceeding the maximum allowable contribution to a campaign by a candidate, which was then capped at $2,100.

July 2012: Del Mastro denies accusations, lashes out ‘unfair’ probe:

None of the charges has been proved in court.

“In our electoral system, it is fundamentally important that the spending and contribution limits enacted by Parliament be respected,” Commissioner of Canada Elections Yves Côté said in a press release.

“The level-playing field principle and the requirement for transparency call for nothing less. We will continue to be vigilant to ensure that these rules are observed.”

“I feel violated and betrayed by an agency in which I and every other member of this place, indeed in which all Canadians, must place their trust,” a sometimes teary Del Mastro told the House of Commons on Thursday.

“I feel strongly that this process has been conducted with malice and contempt for me as a member and for my family’s well-being.”

…

“I can attest that since Wednesday, June 6, 2012, I have been subjected to unfounded hatred, contempt and ridicule as the result of a leaked document belonging to Elections Canada,” the Conservative MP told the House.

Del Mastro, the Conservative MP for Peterborough, Ont., has long maintained that he fully complied with the Elections Act, and denied ever covering up the spending. He has complained that he was treated unfairly by Elections Canada and promised he would be cleared of any allegations of wrongdoing.

The charges are the latest in the Conservative Party’s long-running difficulties with Elections Canada. In 2011, after a protracted and expensive court battle, the party pleaded guilty to violating spending limits in the “in and out” advertising expense scandal in the 2006 campaign. This year, cabinet minister Peter Penashue resigned his seat over allegations he had overspent on his 2011 campaign in Labrador, and was defeated in a subsequent byelection. One former Conservative campaign worker currently faces charges over misleading robocalls in the 2011 election.

Del Mastro was appointed parliamentary secretary to the prime minister shortly after the May 2011 election, and in that role he often spoke for Harper in the House of Commons on matters concerning Elections Canada, particularly during the robocalls affair, parrying opposition attacks and rebutting allegations that the Conservatives acted improperly during the campaign.

He was moved out of the job in a shuffle of parliamentary secretaries this month and reassigned to the same role with junior ministers responsible for three economic development agencies.

In June 2012, Postmedia News and the Ottawa Citizen revealed that Elections Canada was investigating Del Mastro’s 2008 campaign. A court document filed in March showed investigator Thomas Ritchie demanding that Holinshed turn over records of work the company did for Del Mastro’s campaign, both voter-identification calls and get-out-the-vote calls.

Ritchie alleged in the document, called an “Information to Obtain a production order” (ITO), that Del Mastro’s campaign had submitted “a false document” – an invoice on Holinshed letterhead to support the expense claim.

In 2010, Holinshead had sued Del Mastro in small claims court, claiming that the MP had failed to pay the company for a separate job. Correspondence filed as part of that ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit showed a personal cheque from Del Mastro for $21,000.

Del Mastro has said that money was not for use during the election period.

Investigators have been working on the case since then, at one point bringing in RCMP computer experts to help evaluate electronic evidence. Throughout, Del Mastro has complained that the investigation is unfair and has attacked Holinshed co-owner Frank Hall, for example calling Hall “a disgruntled former employer” on his web site.

In August 2012, Del Mastro met with investigators and gave them a “cautioned statement,” which means anything he said might be used in court.

When the story was first reported, Del Mastro, in an emotional appearance on CBC TV, described the personal toll the investigation has taken on him.

“The reason why I’m here is things like this eat you up inside,” he said. “I’ve got a family back in Peterborough. I’ve got a lot of friends there. I’ve got a family in business. And it has my name on the sign.”

After news of the investigation became public, opposition MPs called for Del Mastro to step aside as parliamentary secretary, suggesting he was in a conflict of interest.

The prime minister and the party stuck behind Del Mastro throughout. On June 14, 2012, for instance, Conservative Party spokesman Fred DeLorey said in an email that one of the cheques in question was properly refunded.

“The campaign sent a cheque in error and the campaign was refunded that cheque,” he wrote.

On Thursday, NDP MP Nathan Cullen noted that Harper had defended Del Mastro for the last year.

“I don’t know how the prime minister, with a straight face, can turn to Canadians and say he’s here to clean up a system that needed fixing,” Cullen said. “This prime minister has lost all credibility on this front.”

Cullen said he knew of no precedent for an MP facing charges as serious as those against Del Mastro continuing to sit in the House of Commons – particularly involving someone who spoke for the prime minister.

‘The fact is, there are Conservatives sitting in that House of Commons that don’t deserve to be there, that gamed the system’

Cullen said Harper has shown a “sociopathical” attitude to Canada’s election system.

“The fact is, there are Conservatives sitting in that House of Commons that don’t deserve to be there, that gamed the system.”

Next week, Del Mastro is to host a meeting of Conservative MPs from eastern and northern Ontario for a retreat.

Last week, he told the Peterborough Examiner that he asked the prime minister’s chief of staff to move him from the prime minister’s office to his new job, as parliamentary secretary to Leona Aglukkaq, the minister who is responsible for the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency.

Elections Canada is also conducting a separate inquiry into allegations that a small Mississauga electrical contracting company reimbursed donors to Del Mastro’s 2008 campaign.

Several employees of Deltro Electric Ltd, which is owned by Del Mastro’s cousin, David, said they were paid $1,050 each to make $1,000 contributions to the campaign in Peterborough, three hours away, an allegation denied by both Del Mastros.

The current charges do not address any of those allegations.

In June, just before the end of the spring parliamentary session, Del Mastro rose in the House on what’s called a “question of privilege” to complain that the investigation was violating his rights as an MP.

In the course of an emotional speech, a teary Del Mastro said that he was facing allegations based on Hall’s word.

“It is inconceivable that the presiding justice in this matter would not have asked the investigator quite simply, what do we know about Frank Hall?” he said.

Hall later wrote to Speaker Andrew Scheer to complain that Del Mastro “gratuitously slandered” him behind the shield of parliamentary privilege, which protects MPs from defamation actions for comments they make in the House.

On Thursday, Hall declined to comment on the charges against Del Mastro.Postmedia News

The Statement From Del Mastro

Today I learned that Elections Canada laid charges against me pertaining to the 2008 General Election. As I have consistently stated in the past, I entirely reject these allegations and look forward to the opportunity to defend myself in court.

Since my election in 2006, I have been dedicated to first and foremost, the people of the Peterborough Riding, and that will not change moving forward, and secondly to the Conservative Party. While it is my full intention to continue to support the Government’s economic agenda and the principals for which it stands, I have advised caucus leadership that it is my intention to step out of caucus until this matter is resolved.

Pursuant to a decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Commissioner of Canada Elections, Mr. Yves Côté, has announced his office has laid four charges under the Canada Elections Act, a federal statute.

The charges were filed on September 26, 2013 in the Ontario Court of Justice in Peterborough.

Dean Del Mastro and Richard McCarthy are charged with:

incurring election expenses in an amount more than the election expenses limit, contrary to subsection 443(1) of the Act, thereby committing an offence contrary to subsections 497(3)(p) and 500(5) of the Act;

providing the Chief Electoral Officer an electoral campaign return that omitted to report a contribution of $21,000.00, omitted to report an election expense of $21,000.00 and instead reported an election expense of $1,575.00, and in so doing provided a document referred to in subsection 451(1) of the Act that each knew or ought reasonably to have known contained a material statement that was false or misleading, contrary to paragraph 463(1)(a) of the Act, thereby committing an offence contrary to subsections 497(3)(v) and 500(5) of the Act;

providing to the Chief Electoral Officer an electoral campaign return that omitted to report a contribution of $21,000.00, omitted to report an election expense of $21,000.00 and instead reported an election expense of $1,575.00, and in so doing knowingly provided a document referred to in subsection 451(1) of the Act that did not substantially set out the information required by subsection 451(2), contrary to paragraph 463(1)(b) of the Act, thereby committing an offence contrary to subsections 497(3)(v) and 500(5) of the Act.

Dean Del Mastro is also charged with:

wilfully exceeding the contribution limit for a candidate in his own election campaign, thereby committing an offence contrary to subsections 497(3)(f.13) and 500(5) of the Act.

The Commissioner of Canada Elections is responsible for ensuring that the Canada Elections Act and Referendum Act are complied with and enforced. The Chief Electoral Officer appoints the Commissioner under the Canada Elections Act.

“In our electoral system, it is fundamentally important that the spending and contribution limits enacted by Parliament be respected. It is also essential that the reports and information provided to Elections Canada be accurate and truthful,” said Mr. Côté. “The level-playing field principle and the requirement for transparency call for nothing less. We will continue to be vigilant to ensure that these rules are observed.”